Christmas! Part 1

We got to squeeze in lots of family time this Christmas with both sides of the family!  My whole immediate family was coming into town the Saturday before Christmas, and we got to spend a lot of time with them, as well as go to Peter's family parties.

Peter and I decided to open presents to each other a little early so we could do it by ourselves before everyone arrived.

He got me this lovely navy blue pea coat.  I don't think we took pictures of anything else we got each other, but he also got me a very nice tripod for my camera.  I got him some board/card games, nerf guns, and a Pentatonix cd.

While waiting for my family to get into town, we had time to go to Peter's Mom's extended family party.  They always do a live nativity with the grandkids.  Peter and his brothers were wise-guys.

Check out those awesome shoes!

After the party I spent much of the afternoon putting the finishing touches on cleaning the house.  It was pretty spotless by the time everyone arrived.  We ate some dinner, which Peter very kindly made so I could rest a little, and then Daddy/Pop Pop, Kira, Matt, Vanessa, and I headed downtown to see the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert, while Mom/Nani babysat the boys.

You can only get tickets to the concert in sets of 2, so we were all seated separately.  Peter and I were off to the side, but closer to the stage than the others.

The special guest at the concert this year was Laura Osnes, a Broadway performer.  She was so cute, and her voice is simply lovely.  They also had four opera soloists who performed much of Handel's Messiah with the Choir.  We can't wait to order the CD from this concert. 

Peter saw someone he knew (of course!) after the concert was over, so we had them take this picture for us,

Sunday morning we did "Christmas" with my family.

This boy was very serious about every gift he opened, which is very typical of him.

Telling Uncle Peter a secret. 

This one, on the other hand, was excited about everything. 

All the presents were wonderful, of course!  Here we are trying out my new selfie stick!

Getting all the siblings involved! 

Taking a picture of a relunctant J-man. 

We finally convinced him to join us for a couple selfies! 

We had a yummy breakfast of stuffed french toast and the traditional pork tenderloin.  It was so fun to see this whole crew at my table.

There was still snow on the ground, and the boys were pretty fascinated by it, having lived in Texas for the last four years.  So we took them out in it to do some playing.  They both liked it, but thought it was a little too cold.

That afternoon, we met Peter's cousin at a park to take some family photos.  They turned out very nice.

We packed so much into this day.  When we got home that evening, we decorated sugar cookies - a family tradition!

I think that's enough for one blog post.  More Christmas fun to come!

Summer Wedding

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding.  As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I have mainly been to weddings that are held in our Temples, where we don't have the typical ceremony with bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower-girls and ring bearers.  So this was a new and perhaps unique experience for me to participate in a wedding ceremony as a bridesmaid.  It was really fun!  She was a beautiful bride, and I was grateful to be included in the ceremony.  The wedding was in the groom's parents' backyard, and the groom's father, who is a Bishop in the LDS church, performed the ceremony.  Listening to the words he gave to the couple, I was touched with the feeling that marriage between a man and a woman, when both parties enter it willingly, is sacred to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, no matter where the ceremony is held.  I am grateful to be sealed and married to my kind husband, and I'm so glad my cousin has found a man to love and be loved by.  

Congratulations, pretty lady!

The Fourth of July and the Stadium of Fire

Independence Day morning, everybody came to hang out at Peter's parents house.  Games were played, soccer world cup was watched, and food was eaten.

Taking a nap together in their red, white and blue!

I told Peter towards the beginning of the summer that I wanted to go to a concert because I'd never been to one before.  We both heard earlier during the week of the 4th of July that Carrie Underwood was coming to the Stadium of Fire--a yearly Independence Day celebration at BYU stadium, so we decided to get tickets.  I was so excited!  I love Carrie Underwood.

Selfie in the Stadium

This celebration included all sorts of stuff. They had these cute little dancers from various dance companies dressed as cowgirls.  

Forming the Liberty Bell

Doing a Cowgirl dance!

They had skydivers with various flags.

Trampoline acrobats dressed as superheros.  They were pretty awesome and got some crazy height!

And then there was the Carrie Underwood concert.  I knew almost every song she sang, and it was awesome!  We were pretty far away, so we couldn't really see her see her, but it was just cool to hear her sing her songs live.  She sounds just like she does on the CD! (which actually is saying something what with autotune and such)

I made this one bigger so you can look really close for her.

Of course, it wouldn't be a 4th of July celebration without some fireworks!

In the middle of the fireworks they had a song.  The dancers had been given glow sticks and were sitting on lines drawn on the grass so that they formed the Statue of Liberty!

Our 4th of July went out with a bang!